Nawal El Saadawi cuts an impressive figure on the Kwani? Litfest stage at the Louis Leakey auditorium, National Museums of Kenya. Clad in a white top, black trousers and red boots, her snow-white hair seems to assert her matriarchal authority that comes with age, captivating a silent, attentive audience. And she is indeed a brilliant personality, able to locate the missing link between medicine and literature, herself an accomplished physician and renowned writer. Of this she says, “Science and writing both thrive on knowledge. The creative process must be founded in knowledge drawn from a free system.”

She goes on to criticize the education system that places emphasis on memorizing and obedience, a trait she blames for breeding oppression and political domination of peoples across the world. According to her, schools offer fragmented knowledge that splits people from the reality. “I hate the word ‘professional’, I’m sorry to say, which our education offers because it implies you are only fit for the market,” she says. This is what she faults “good writers” for as they side-step political revolutionary processes (such as what happened in her native Egypt) to be on the safe side.

All human beings, she says, should know how politics plays in their lives and writers should be at the forefront in expressing this. She draws from her medical background, “A physician should tell why mostly poor people are ill because poor diet [that promotes disease] is an economic aspect.” She adds, “Knowing why people are poor is political which [then] brings us to the effects of colonialism, post colonialism and neo-colonialism.” El Saadawi clarifies that politics is not just about elections but understanding the relationship between power, economics and problems of the majority.

She cites women as part of this majority, burdened by a combined conspiracy from time immemorial. El Saadawi went on to unearth the “evil trio” of capitalism, religion and culture that have mostly worked to demean the woman. Drawing an example from her Muslim background, she questions why women should be forced to wear veils while men don’t. She does not spare the Western culture as well. “Why should women go to parties almost naked while the men are always fully dressed?” she asks. A just society to her, should have equal treatment and she suggested that in her opinion, men should also go naked in parties as well, a comment that elicited laughter and applause in equal measure.

Her questioning of the status quo she revealed, began as a child. She recounted how her brothers were allowed to play while she wasn’t. The explanation she got from her parents was “because you are a girl and girls don’t play anyhow in our culture”. And this she said, is the same answer that is given on matters of religion and culture in our societies. Her distaste of female genital mutilation, which she admits she falling victim to, did not escape criticism.

In 1972, she published her first work in non-fiction, “Women and Sex” which ticked off the political and theological establishment in Egypt resulting in her dismissal as Director of Public Health. She also lost her position as Chief Editor of a medical journal as well as Assistant Secretary General of the Medical Association of Egypt. The book dealt in taboo topics of women and sexuality. El Saadawi also said that rape happens to boys and girls in all societies that have a culture of hushing up the crime especially if the offender is a family member.

Employing her sense of humour even when tackling serious issues, she posited that capitalism thrived on religion giving the example of Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush. “These two fellows [Osama and Bush] were like twins, even though they seemed on opposite ends, their operations were synced,” she said. The author who is a self-proclaimed feminist supports women empowerment provided it doesn’t justify injustices. “I will never support a capitalist feminist,” she declares. Women, she elaborated, have been brought up under capitalism thriving on unpaid female labour at the domestic level. She stressed the need for a system of socio-economic justice.

The writer, who has endured imprisonment in 1980 (during Anwar Sadat’s regime) and an assassination attempt, is as militant as ever. She even appeared in a documentary by Times magazine during the Tahrir Square protests that toppled the Mubarak regime in 2011. El Saadawi has a lot of praise for young writers and revolutionaries who stand up for justice freedom and equality. Once touted as a potential presidential candidate in the Egyptian elections of 2005, she evaluates the current political landscape. “The picture is not good but the hope lies in the power of the people,” says the 81-year-old.